My surprise baby played peek-a-boo in the womb! One mum’s extraordinary story THAT’S LIFE magazine…

Emmie is always smiling!

Callie Martin was thrilled when her story appeared via Featureworld on page three of The Daily Mail! She and partner Kailan then appeared on ITV Good Morning Britain with adorable baby Emmie.

I was delighted to then gain more coverage for Callie, whose baby survived an ectopic pregnancy, placing her story again with two more magazines.

Now That’s Life magazine has published her story. So grab a coffee and have a read below… and look out for Callie’s story again as it is shortly due to be published again in another glossy women’s magazine!

Sell your story in multiple deals! Contact me at Featureworld to find out how your story can appear in newspapers, magazines and how you might even go on television…

Surprise, Surprise mummy!

Callie, Kailan and Emmie in That’s Life mag…

Callie Martin, 26, was devastated when she suffered her fourth miscarriage – but a shock was in store…

Gripping the pregnancy test in my hand, I closed my eyes.

Staring at the stick I said: “it’s positive!”

Yet my joy was tinged with worry. After all my partner Kailan Broughton, 24, and I had been here before. Over the past eighteen months we’d been overjoyed when I’d got pregnant three times.

But then our joy had turned to pain when at just a few weeks into each pregnancy I’d miscarried.

Doctors told us we’d just been unlucky. Each time the pregnancies had miscarried for different reasons and it was just one of those things. But both of us wondered if we’d ever become parents.

Now while I was pleased when friends announced they were expecting, I couldn’t help feel envious.

“Let’s not get our hopes up,” I said.

Kailan hugged me. “It might be different this time.”

Over the next few weeks I tried to rest. When I got home from my customer services job Kailan made me sit down with my feet up.

Weeks went by and we both relaxed. I began imagining what names we might choose for a boy or girl. As the days ticked by, I found myself thinking this time maybe it would be ok.

Then…

At eight weeks I began getting terrible stomach cramps. When I went to the loo I was shocked to see blood.

I simply couldn’t believe it. How could Kailan and I possibly have yet another miscarriage. It seemed too much to bear.

Kailan and I rushed to hospital.

Doubled up in agony on the hospital bed, I thought I’d never been in so much pain before.

As I was wheeled in for an ultrasound scan, I truly thought I was going to die.

After examining me, I could see doctors too thought it was bad news.

Kailan’s face was white as the consultant said: “We think you’re having a miscarriage.”

Only this time the prognosis was even worst.

The consultant said: “But you need emergency surgery because it appears to be an ectopic pregnancy.” He went on to explain instead of growing in the womb, the embryo was developing in my fallopian tube.

If they didn’t operate to remove it immediately then my fallopian tube could burst and cause fatal bleeding.

The next few minutes passed in a blur as I signed a consent form. As I went to theatre my last thoughts were would I see Kailan again…

Moments later it seemed I was waking up in a hospital bed. A drip for drugs was going into my arm and the pain was gone. Only, so was my baby. It was devastating. I couldn’t help but cry.

Back home a few days later, I couldn’t help but worry I’d never be a mum. I hadn’t just lost my baby, but I’d had to have the whole of my fallopian tube removed too.

Doctors told Kailan and I: “You can still get pregnant with just one working tube.” But, I still felt too weak to even contemplate trying again.

A week later I still felt ill.

A scan back at the hospital revealed an infection had set in and I was prescribed drugs.

I couldn’t help but think I’d never feel better, let alone ever manage to have a longed-for baby.

Two weeks later I was back at work.

Yet I still didn’t feel right.

And when one day I began suffering from stomach cramps my team leader was taking no chances. “I think you should go to hospital and then go home,” she said.

On my way to A & E at Queens Hospital, Woolwich, se London I rang Kailan.

I could tell he was sick with worry. He said: “I’ll leave work now and meet you there.”

Sitting on a hospital bed, behind closed curtains, the consultant said: “Ms Martin, we need to do another ultrasound scan.”

Panic rose inside me. What if I had yet another infection? It just seemed to be one nightmare after another.

The woman doing the scan told me to lie on the bed and rubbed some gel onto my tummy.

Then as she turned to look at the screen, she began to smile.

“So you had an ectopic pregnancy four weeks ago?” she said. I nodded as the horror of it all flooded back.

She peered closer at the screen.

“Well, there’s something I have to tell you,” she said. She turned the screen round so I could see.

A little white bean shape appeared in the darkness.

“There’s a baby’s heartbeat,” she said, pointing out to a tiny fast flickering in the bean, “and I would say you’re about three months pregnant.”

Pregnant? For a moment I wondered if she was the one who was confused. Sheer happiness and relief flooded through me.

And her smile was even larger now. “Everything seems fine,” she said, “your baby is healthy and growing nicely.”

I tucked my top back in as the woman doing the scan went onto explain I’d suffered a rare condition known as a heteroptic pregnancy.

Unbeknown to everyone I’d had an ectopic pregnancy and a normal pregnancy at the same time.

“You were pregnant with twins,” she said, “but whereas this baby travelled to the womb as it should have done, the other twin got stuck in the tube.”

The stuck twin had resulted in the life-threatening ectopic pregnancy. But the other twin had hid in my uterus. It was a miracle she had survived not only the emergency ectopic surgery operation to save my life, but all the drugs I took for the infection afterwards.

I was so shocked, a nurse got a wheelchair for me to sit down on. As I was wheeled out of the scan Kailan came rushing through the swing doors.

Author: Alison Smith-Squire

Alison Smith-Squire is a media agent selling stories to newspapers, magazines and TV for the ordinary person. She runs website Featureworld.co.uk and online writers' ezine, sellyourstoryuk.com
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